


Casual Encounters

by AlexielMihawk ENG (AlexielMihawk)



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Slice of Life, no superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 08:30:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11528466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexielMihawk/pseuds/AlexielMihawk%20ENG
Summary: All those times they met on the crowded and cramped train wagon in the morning, they never shared a word. The stinking smell of strangers, who had yet to understand the concept of personal hygiene, was what first induced them to share something, mostly disgust.It was a Tuesday morning of a lazy day of March, the flowers had started to bloom outside and the sun was getting hotter: it was the moment M’Gann and Conner shared their first look.





	Casual Encounters

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the Young Justice minibang and I'm so incredibly sorry for being so late in posting this.  
> Much happened in the last two month, many problems arose (family related, work related, personal stuff and so on) and were solved, but it was difficult nonetheless. I just want to thank my artist, Vodka112 for being wonderful, she showed me pacience and was always understanding and kind; she was an awesome beta and did an awesome job with the drawing. Thank you so much, you are a wonderful human being <3 
> 
> The setting of this story is unclear, it takes place in Europe but at the same time I didn't want to be too specific with the location so that everyone could imagine it to be wherever they wanted. The characters that appear on the train are: Mammoth and Shimmer, Queen Bee, Bart Allen and Jaime Reyes, Lex Luthor, Tuppence Terror, Inza and Kent Nelson, Zatanna. 
> 
> The art at the beginning and the art at the end are both made by the awesome [Vodka 112](https://vodka112.tumblr.com/)

 

****

  


All those times they met on the crowded and cramped train wagon in the morning, they never shared a word. The stinking smell of strangers, who had yet to understand the concept of personal hygiene, was what first induced them to share something, mostly disgust.

It was a Tuesday morning of a lazy day of March, the flowers had started to bloom outside and the sun was getting hotter: it was the moment M’Gann and Conner shared their first look.

They were sitting in front of each other, as they had for a couple of weeks now, when this red-haired guy, dressed in a crop-top and a leather jacket, entered the wagon. He was singing aloud in a high pitched voice and he was followed by a girl who looked so much like him that she was obviously his twin sister. They sat next to them, singing loudly and moving like there was no one else on the train - despite it being nine in the morning, and the wagon being filled with students and people going to work. Conner was the first to make a face; he wrinkled his nose and looked at her, his eyes wide open to show his light blue irises filled with disgust and annoyance.

M’Gann chuckled, a little lost in disbelief as she had been admiring him for quite some time now, and she couldn’t really believe he was hinting to her, searching for a silent friend, an ally in that mess of a morning. But he was, and she could understand why, when she perceived the nasty smell coming from the two newcomers as well and it was quite unbearable. She could have stood the noise, the cringy singing and the swirling of arms, but the smell! God! It was like those two hadn’t bathed in years, or maybe they had… in a sewer. But then, why take the public train and impose their stink to the entire wagon?

She stood up and gently tried to open the window next to where she was sitting. Of course, the damn thing wouldn’t open. She glanced at the boy in front of her and silently shook her head. He sighed. It was going to be a long day.

After that first time, it became some sort of an inner joke. They never spoke a word, never said anything, but every time something strange or funny or annoying happened in their train wagon, they would exchange looks, sharing with each other the discomfort or the amusement that the other passengers caused them.

Like that time they were graced with the presence of a famous business woman whose car had broken down and had to take the regional train in order to arrive in time to the tiny town where she was expected to appear. M’gann had seen her face before, on fashion magazines more than economic ones. She only knew her name was Quinn Bee and that her clothing style had inspired stylists from all over the world, fascinated by the appealing contrast of her dark skin and the multiple layers of organza she used to wear. She had come in like she owned the place - the wagon, whatever, looking at other passengers as they were annoying insects pestering her, and she spent the whole time on the phone with a tone of voice that was way too loud for such a small place.

“Well, it smells, and the seats are uncomfortable, and the passengers are peasants... What do you mean I can’t buy it? Why not? I don’t care if it’s a public service.”

M’Gann’s eyes were wide open, maybe a bit too much. She lifted an eyebrow in disconcert, baffled by the absurd pretenses of that woman. Conner laughed; it was the first time she had seen him smiling like that, with amusement in his eyes and the corner of his lips gently curled up. She felt warmer, she felt better, and even though he said nothing, she still felt understood.

That wasn’t the only time. As the days went by, M’Gann started to feel more and more attracted to the young stranger that sat in front of her every day. She didn’t know his name, but he was so cute and his eyes were the bluest blue, and she bet he was also kind - M’Gann had seen him once help an old lady cross the street - and nothing would now convince her that the idea she had of him was wrong.

Besides, the nameless stranger had proven his kindness multiple times, even if not in a blatant way. There was one time when a couple of young high school students boarded the train; they had the typical _joie de vivre_ of the youth, of those teenagers that still believe that the world has everything to offer to them, that believe in the future and its infinite possibilities. M’Gann had smiled the moment she had seen them - they reminded her of her younger brother, a small thirteen-year-old boy full of life and enthusiasm. She had been watching intently as they sat down, singing and laughing. Of course there were others on the train, it was so early in the morning and everyone - except for those kids - had that typical look in their eyes, a mixture between why-did-I-get-out-of-bed and why-am-I-still-alive, which basically meant most of the people in that wagon were wishing to be somewhere else, probably still sleeping under the cozyness of their blankets.

As much as they were talking, the boys were not too loud nor annoying; their muffled laughter and giggles came to the rest of the passengers as white noise. She liked it. Her silent friend was amused too, and no one seemed to be disturbed. Except for this stern-looking man who kept stomping his foot, throwing nervous looks around. He was bald and clearly annoyed, as one could see by his constant eye-rolling, snorting and puffing like a steam engine.

“Some of us would certainly enjoy some quiet,” he exclaimed, jumping on his feet, glaring at the kids with scorn.

A couple of heads had turned towards him, eyeing him with disconcerted looks. The kids had looked mortified and truly sorry, not that there had been anything to be sorry for.

“I’m sorry, sir. My hermano here’s just happy, ‘cuz it’s his birthday.”

“Yup, yup. Thirteen, sir.”

“Oh, perfect,” said the bald man, “God save us from teenagers. Would you mind terribly move to a different carriage? Thank you.”

Too many heads turned towards him, but no one said anything, except for Conner. Her silent friend stepped up and glared at the man; it was the first time M’Gann had heard his voice. She blushed for no apparent reason.

“Well, _you_ are the one who’s being annoying, sir, and way too loud. Would you mind terribly moving to a different carriage?”

Someone laughed and someone nodded; the bald man, in his elegant suit and expensive wristwatch, snorted, but he didn’t reply.

M’Gann decided she fancied the sound of his voice, but she wasn’t brave enough to talk to him. Another month passed and neither of them found an opportunity to start a conversation.

M’Gann was too self conscious and she was worried she could bother him; Conner on the other hand had learned, with time, that his manner of speaking was often seen as rude and he didn’t want to scare her away.

It was the first of June when everything changed.

Conner was sweating.

The stranger had been looking at him from the moment he reached the train platform; her eyes were gazing over him as if he was a piece of meat. She managed to make him uncomfortable more than flattered for the attention. He hoped she’d leave him alone once they were on board, but he was wrong, and after he had boarded the train, she followed him and sat next to him, approaching him with a “Hi, Handsome”.

He didn’t like it.

“You’re bothering me,” he told her, trying to move her away with a hand.

“I’m Tuppence, what’s yar name, Handsome?”

“None of your business.”

“Wouldn’t kill ya to tell me, ya know, pretty eyes?”

“For fuck’s sake, it’s Conner. Quit it with the names.”

“Shame, Conner. I liked yar eyes.”

As M’Gann boarded the train, a few stops after him, the boy felt a sudden sense of relief; maybe she’d help him. Of course she would, he just had to make her understand he needed to be rescued. The startled look in her eyes made it clear she wasn’t expecting anyone else to be with him, not a girl, not someone whose arms were wrapped around his in such a possessive way. He made a face and his lips parted to silently spell “Help me”, but he realized he didn’t even know her name.

The sight of the blondie hit M’Gann like a fist in the stomach: of course he had a girlfriend. Why wouldn’t he? He was nice and kind and handsome, and… and why was he looking at her like that?  
It took her a few seconds to realize she wasn’t his girlfriend at all, and the realization brought a peaceful sense of relief. M’Gann discovered she could breath again. It was a brief instant, and then she was back on track, ready to help her unknown friend getting rid of the blondie.

“Hi,” her voice was soft and kind, Conner was pleased to hear it.

“Hi,” he muttered, glancing at Tuppence in hope she’d take the hint and go away.

“Hi, hi, hi. Are you a friend of Conner’s?”

So that was his name, M’Gann thought, but before she could answer the boy replied for her.

“Actually she’s my girlfriend”.

“Is she now?”

“Uhm, well, yes, apparently I am. I’m M’Gann, nice to meet you”.

“Definitely not nice to meet you, let me tell you this, you look just like someone who boarded the train by mistake”.

“She takes this train every morning,” Conner muttered, still trying to get Tuppence off him.

“I do,” she finally sat down in front of them “I didn’t get your name…”

“I’m Tuppence, Tuppence Terror, and I don’t really believe you are his girlfriend.”

“That’s stupid, what the fuck!”

“Yeah, why the fuck didn’t ya tell me right away ya had a girlfriend? Ya didn’t because, ya made it up right now.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong, yet her statement was terribly rude; they were trying to lie to her and _how dare she doubt their lies?_ Besides, even if they weren’t lying, her doubt would have been incredibly rude nonetheless. In fact, she was literally no one to make such an assertion.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my entire life, and I’m not a genius myself so I’ve heard plenty of stupid shit.”

“I’m sure you are cleverer than you think,” M’Gann smiled at him.

“Ya sure or ya know, honey?”

“I know, are you seriously doubting we know each other? Because that’s rude.”

“Then tell me how ya meet,” inquired the nosy stranger.

“He bought me coffee,” M’Gann replied, almost at the same time as Conner said: “On the train.”

“Wait, he bought ya coffee on the train?”

“Well, no, I saw her on the train…”

“And when we got off, he offered me a coffee,” explained the girl.

She had started to play with her hair out of nervousness: she wasn’t good at this kind of game. M’Gann had always been a huge fan of the truth: she was lawful and dutiful and positive, and she couldn’t believe the situation she had gotten herself into was real. Her delicate fingers kept entangling her red curls; she had been trying to look right into the stranger girl’s eyes and appear sure of herself, but despite her attempts, she couldn’t keep her eyes steady and she had to move her gaze from Tuppence to Conner, who smiled ather.

“That seems... reasonable,” admitted the blondie, shaking her head in dismay. “How long long has this been going on?”

“Who are you, my brother?” Conner asked, trying once again to shake her off without hurting her.

“I’m interested in committed relationships, pretty eyes. Ya should be flattered.”

“For now, the only thing I am is annoyed. Thank you for not noticing it.”

“I notice a lot of things, honey, like how she didn’t come here straight away when she boarded, like she didn’t even know what to say”.

“What wrong with that?” Muttered M’Gann, “not everyone is overconfident and sure of herself like you appear to be.”

“You should trust your boyfriend more, reddie. How long have you two been together?”

“Couple of months,” replied Conner.

“Since March,” stated M’Gann.

“What?”

“Well we first met on the train in March,” Conner tried to correct the mistake, “but I didn’t ask her out until a couple of months ago”.

“Looks to me like you don’t even know what to tell me”.

“Looks to me like you’re being a bit too nosy and this is none of your business,” M’Gann stood up and looked at Tuppence with anger, “Come on, Conner. This is our stop.”

He glanced at her, looking vaguely surprised as he hadn’t even noticed the time passing.

“You’re right, let’s go or we’ll be late”.

“Nice try, it’s my stop, too.”

“Well, follow us, and I’ll call the police. My uncle is a cop.”

M’Gann wasn’t that kind of person that bragged about her family, nor did she like to argue with strangers, but there was a limit to her patience and Tuppence had reached and surpassed it. Without thinking too much about what she was doing, she grabbed Conner’s wrist and dragged him to the train doors.

“I’m impressed,” he muttered. She blushed.

The train station was emptier than usual. There was a distant chatting in the background that slowly mounted as most of the passengers got off the train. Tuppence was right behind them and M’Gann was starting to get annoyed, but she had no clue on what to do.

Conner was not as clueless and he gently took her hand, hoping that physical contact wouldn’t bother her too much.

“Follow me, I know a place we can go to. Besides, I think I should offer you something, like a coffee. For real this time.”

She smiled, happy for the unexpected turn of the events.

Conner guided her over the narrow streets behind the train station; they passed by a small Vietnamese restaurant and a flower shop, M’Gann vaguely noticed the owner waving at them, Conner waved back and kept going. It took them around five minutes to finally reach a small café, almost hidden on the corner of a street.

The sign was saying “ _Tower of Fate: let coffee be your Spitfire._ ” She liked both the name and the small draw of a flaming tower on a corner. Stepping inside was like travelling through time, back to the thirties. It smelled like toasted beans and old books; there were small wooden chairs, embed with leaves, scattered around small mahogany tables, old framed pictures and paintings hung on the walls and there was a gentle breeze in the air coming from a very old, and almost invisible vent in a corner.

“The owner’s a friend of mine,” the boy said, eyeing the outside just to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“Is she still there?”

“I don’t see her. I’m sorry you had to do… you know, this.”

He moved his hands frenetically into the air, gesturing towards himself.

“It was nothing. I’m sorry I didn’t get what the problem was right away. I can be a bit dense sometimes. _M’Gann!_ ” She gently touched her forehead with the palm of her hand as she repeated her own name aloud.

Conner laughed.

“I think it’s about time I properly introduce myself, anyway. I’m Conner Kent, and it’s really nice to meet you.”

“M’Gann, M’Gann Mortzz!”

Conner guided her towards a corner table, placed right next to one of the huge windows that lightened the room. As they sat down, a nice looking woman in her mid-sixties approached them; her eyes were kind and her smile made her look like she knew every secret in the world.

“Good morning, Conner. What can I bring you and your pretty friend today?”

“Coffee for me, please, Inza.”

“And I would like a cappuccino”.

“I’ll be right back.”

Conner smiled kindly to the old woman, and turned his attention back to M’Gann.

“It wasn’t really my intention to start a conversation like that, I mean I wanted to talk to you, but you know, without all the Tuppence thing, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize, really. I’m just glad I could help.” She laughed. “Although it was kind of embarrassing with all those questions.”

“And we kept contradicting ourselves.”

“I know! I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t be.” It was his turn to reassure her. “You know what? We should probably plan something out.”

M’Gann gave him a confused look.

“I mean, we should come up with a story, you know, in case it happens again. I mean, not necessarily to me; it might happen to you, too.”

“I really hope it doesn’t,” she muttered, then she lifted her eyes to meet Conner’s. “It’s not a bad idea, though.”

“Like, we should keep the ‘ _we meet on the train and I asked you out for a coffee_ ’ part though. It sounded believable to me.”

“It wasn’t that far off,” she replied, nodding with conviction. “We did meet on the train.”

“Then that’s it. We met on the train and got out for a coffee –“

“And we’ve been dating for, like, three months. You don’t talk much –“

“But you do. You look like a chatty person, are you?” He asked, afraid he might have offended her.

M’Gann laughed.

“I am. Truth be told, extrovert probably doesn’t quite cover it.”

“Truth be told, introvert doesn’t quite cover _me_!”

She laughed again. Conner decided he liked that sound.

“What do you do? I mean in your life, like… for real.”

“I study psychology. I feel that empathy is the one of the things we, as human beings, need most. Understanding others, how their psyche works and stuff like that is just fascinating, incredibly fascinating. What about you? What do you do?”

Conner shrugged.

“I’m not really the perfect student type. I mean, I’m not stupid, but I’m not exactly brilliant.”

“I think you can do everything you want.” She blushed the very moment she finished the sentence, realizing that it was a bit too flattering for the situation.

“Thank you. Anyway, I’m studying journalism.”

“That’s amazing!”

“It’s not as cool as it sounds, but my brother... He’s a professional journalist for a famous newspaper, and I guess I want to be a bit like him.”

“Oh, you have a brother? I do too, but mine’s younger. He’s still in that phase where he wants to have fun more than studying, and I can’t really blame him.”

Conner laughed.

“Definitely not!” he replied, interrupting himself for a brief moment as their order arrived at the table.

The waitress who brought their breakfast was younger than the previous one; her hair were black and her eyes blue and M’Gann found her incredibly beautiful.

“Morning S. Here’s coffee, and the cappuccino is for you, I guess?” She asked politely, smiling at M’Gann, who nodded and thanked her with a soft voice.

“Thanks Z,” Conner smiled, waving a hand to greet her.

“My job, guys. Have fun.”

“She’s so pretty,” M’Gann mouthed, following the girl as she disappeared behind the counter.

“Who? Zatanna? She’s okay, I guess. She works here sometimes to help Kent out, he’s a friend of her father.”

“Do you come here often?”

“I guess so, I mean a lot of people I know live in this area, so I guess I can say I do.”

His phone vibrated on the table and the screen lightened up with a notification.

“I like this area,” M’Gann started, without really noticing him eyeing the messages on his phone, “although I don’t really know it. I went to the Vietnamese restaurant sometimes, though. I like food, and cooking.”

“Oh, that,” he answered absent-mindedly, “That’s Artemis’ mother’s. She’s the girlfriend of one of my best friends. I mean, Artemis, not her mother.”

“For real?”

“Yeah. Not the dark haired girl, the blonde one. The one who looks like she could kill you… Well, actually both of them look like that. Sorry. Too much information.”

“I don’t mind, really. I like talking with you.”

Conner slightly blushed. M’Gann was that kind of person who’d tell you everything that passed through her mind, from what she thought of you to how much she loved that old, forgotten jukebox covered in dust in a corner of the café.

He tried to keep it cool by reading the messages on his phone, but whenhe saw them, he had to hold in a curse.

 

> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Zatanna told me you’re at Kent’s with a girl. Who? How? Why? What happened to that train girl you liked?”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “It’s train girl. Name’s M’Gann, btw.”
> 
> _From: Kaldur | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Nice name.”
> 
> _From: FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “What does it mean you’re having coffee with the train girl? Did you ask her out?”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “It’s just a coffee, she like saved me this morning.”
> 
> _From: Kaldur | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “You could have just thanked her”
> 
> _From: FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “You are ruining all the fun, Kal.”
> 
> _From: Kaldur | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I’m using my brain, Wally.”
> 
> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Ask her out.”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “HOW? I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO THIS KIND OF SHIT”
> 
> _From: Kaldur | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Have you tried opening your mouth and using words?”
> 
> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Try ‘Wanna date?’ It usually works”
> 
> _From:_ _FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Artemis says you should try to impress her with your muscles”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I hate you all.”
> 
>  

“Is everything okay?” M’Gann slightly tilted her head and looked at him, she was smiling.

“Yeah, I was just… nevermind. Listen, uhm, do you have plans? I mean, of course you have plans, it’s not like you get here everyday to waste time, but I was wondering if-”

“I do have lesson, like in a couple of hours, but I could skip it if that would make you feel better.”

“I don’t need to feel better,” Conner grunted.

The girl laughed, at him or of him, he didn’t really care - that was a first.

“I mean,” he started again, “you don’t have to skip stuff for me. I guess you already wasted enough of your time.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I arrived this early just to study and practice, and sometimes I go to the gym before class, just to wake up a bit.”

“Oh, you know what? When we’re finished here, I could, maybe, accompany you wherever it is that you have to go.”

“Don’t you usually go in the opposite direction?” She blushed as soon as she asked, realizing that her words meant she usually followed him with her eyes even after they had gotten out of the train. Which was true, of course. She had always been following him with her gentle gaze, trying to understand him and his habits, from how he moved and where he went, but being such a reserved and polite girl she had never dared anything more than imagining.

“I don’t, well maybe I do, but I didn’t grow up in a jungle. Even _I_ know how to be, you know, well-mannered.”

“A modern day hero, I’m so lucky!”

Conner smiled faintly, he liked how she had said the word ‘ _hero_ ’, like she believed it, like she meant it.

“I’ll be right back.”

He wanted to pay without telling her, so he tried to sneak behind the counter so that she wouldn’t notice, but she did and tried to protest in vain. Actually Kent insisted he wanted to offer them both breakfast on the house, so Conner couldn’t really prove his gentleman’s talents to M’Gann. She appreciated anyways because, as she told him: “It’s the gesture that matters.”

As they were walking down the narrow streets, trying to remain under the comfortable shadows of the tall buildings, Conner strived to find a topic of conversation. That wasn’t really something he was good at, making small talk.

His friends tried to teach him, make him feel more confident by boosting his self-esteem, but everything they tried had also failed miserably. Conner just didn’t care, and not because he didn’t care about other people (as a matter of fact, he probably cared more than everyone else did), but mostly because he wasn’t interested at all in petty talking or in gossips and news about people he had never met before in his life. He was that kind of friend that would listen to your problems for hours without having the slightest clue on how to help solving them, and would punch his way to the very core of the problem to solve it. By punching it away.

M’Gann didn’t have that kind of problem. Actually, she was quite the opposite. Being a chatter, she was always worried she could come off as too much: too talkative, too stressing, too dull. The thing was, she liked to share: actions, thoughts, emotions, feelings. She loved to talk about the books she had read, the movies she had seen, that thing she was studying and couldn’t quite understand. They were, in a way, compensating each other’s flaws.

“I’m sorry. I know I tend to annoy people with my never ending babbling.”

“I don’t mind, I liked the topic.” Conner answered, smiling.

“You like movies? I went to the cinema last week and saw that new superhero blockbuster. It was supercool! I’m a huge fan!”

“Oh, man! Me too! I’ve been wanting to go and see it for a while now, but apparently I can’t find the right time. Most of my friends have already seen it.”

“No, no, Conner, you must see it!”

“I will… I promise.”

“Perfect! So we can talk about it one of these mornings, on the train,” she stopped both talking and moving and lifted her head to look at him straight in the eyes. “Can we talk from now on? I mean, on the train.”

“Of course, of course we can. I mean we know each other, don’t we?”

“Yeah, God forbid we get into that Tuppence girl once again. She was quite intrusive.”

“No, I mean, I like talking to you, not just because of Tuppence.”

M’Gann blushed and smiled, Conner noticed for the first time she had a faint line of freckles on her nose.

“To be completely honest,” he continued as they kept walking towards the library. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while, but I’m not good with this kind of shit and I didn’t know what to say.”

“Neither did I, but I felt the same. I liked the silent commentary on the morning train’s population.”

“Yeah, at least there was someone I could share my hate for the world with.”

She laughed once again, and Conner realized she found him funny, not in a comic way, but in a pleasant one. Funny like Dick making jokes while he was talking, and not in the sarcastic and annoying way that Wally used to be until a couple of years before.

“And we’re here,” M’Gann voice interrupted the flow of his thoughts and he shook his head, looking at the huge library building with haste. Damn thing.

He thought it would have been further away.

“Oh, okay. Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” He asked, stepping awkwardly backwards.

“I think so.” She nodded and smiled. “Thank you for the coffee.”

“No, thank you for the help. I was stuck, really.”

She laughed again and waved her hand. Conner turned his back and started walking in the opposite direction.

He couldn’t stop thinking that he was sort of throwing away all the effort he had put in that conversation; and considering how nervous he could get talking to strangers, well it was a goddamn huge effort.

“Shit,” he muttered, passing a hand through his short hair.

He turned around once again and run over the stairs of the library just in time to call M’Gann’s name aloud, right before she entered the turning door of the building.

“Yes?” She rushed towards him; she had a surprised look in her eyes as she frowned in confusion.

“Can I give you my number?” he asked, blushing slightly.

“I… You… Of course! Here.” She passed him her phone. There was a soft pinkish cover to protect it, and a cute keychain was dangling on a side, a small green alien.

He carefully typed his number and gave it back. He felt like it would have been easier to ask her out if he didn’t have to actually speak the words. Of course a potential date would have required him to talk, but that would have been a problem for future Conner.

“Do you want mine as well?”

“I mean, of course, but you can just write me a message and I’ll save your number from there.”

“ _M’Gann!_ ” She patted her palm on her forehead, again. “I didn’t think about that! Clever, Conner!”

He laughed and waved once again.

“Then I’ll write you,” she yelled as he was walking away.

“I’ll wait!”

As he passed the building and reached main street, Conner discovered he was smiling.

He unlocked his phone and looked at the notifications: 6 unread messages from one chat.

“Assholes,” he mumbled as he opened his friends’ chat. tTere was no malice in his voice though.

> _From: FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Howdy friend. You still alive? Did she dump you before you even asked her out?”
> 
> _From: Royboy | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Sometimes I wonder how it’s possible that you, out of all of us, are the one who’s actually dating someone.”
> 
> _From: FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Artemis wants me to remember  you that you are dating her sister and implying you aren’t is not a wise thing.”
> 
> _From: Royboy | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “It was a manner of speaking, you dumbass”
> 
> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Seriously tho, Conner you alive?”
> 
> _From: Kaldur | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I’m not bailing you out of prison. Again.”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I don’t like repeating myself, but I hate ALL of you”
> 
> _From: FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Come on man. You know what they say, everyone has the friends they deserve.”
> 
> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Tbqh no one deserves us.”
> 
> _From: Kaldur | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I certainly don’t”
> 
> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “RUDE. Anyways, update us, man!”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “It’s not like you make me want to tell you anything.”
> 
> _From: FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Come on, man, I’m pining here!”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname_  
>  “Okay, okay”  
>  “I gave her my number.”
> 
> _From: Royboy | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Smooth ”
> 
> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I’m proud, man.”
> 
> _From: Kaldur | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I didn’t see THIS coming.”
> 
> _From: FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I don’t get it. Why didn’t you ask for hers?”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I figured it would be more comfortable for her to decide whether she wanted to write me or not.”
> 
> _From: Royboy | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Again, smooth.”
> 
> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “And classy”
> 
> _From: FasterThanYou | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “Oh gosh, they grow up so fast!”
> 
> _From: D. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “THIS”
> 
> _From: SuperB. | To: Thischatneedsaname  
>  _ “I hate you.”

He grinned as he put away his phone and started walking towards his university. The day was just getting started and he had plenty to do. He could wait for her to write while being productive.

Not that he had to wait for long. His phone buzzed gently in his back pocket. He searched for it, trying frantically to unlock it.

There was a small message on the preview screen and an unknown number.

> _From: unknown | To: Conner Kent_  
>  “Hi Conner, this is M’Gann’s. Thanks for the company! It made my day :)”

She didn't know how better she had made his. He smiled, promising himself he would ask her out the next day. After all, that was already a huge step ahead for just one morning. He didn't want to rush things. As for now, everything was turning out to be quite perfect.

 

 


End file.
